On May 11th, 1997, the IBM supercomputer, Deep Blue, became the first-ever machine to beat a reigning chess world champion when it defeated Garry Kasparov in a six-game match. Kasparov didn't take the loss well, and accused IBM of cheating. But today he is championing artificial intelligence as a tool that will elevate humanity, rather than destroy it, as pessimists like Stephen Hawking fear.
The human advantage: Kasparov tells economist Tyler Cowen in a podcast interview Wednesday that despite the fact that computers long ago surpassed humans in chess-playing ability, collaboration between the two will always be most powerful. He says that in a game of chess, even a weak human player in conjunction with a well designed machine and superior interface can defeat even the most powerful computer on its own.
